Ako Bisdak party-list 3rd Nominee & Former DOTr Usec Rommel Gavieta, 1st Nominee & Admiral Ernesto Enriquez and 2nd Nominee Former NBI Director Virgilio Mendez
MANILA, Philippines – The Ako Bisdak party-list group (#113) will launch its reformative programs that aim to uplift the lives of the Filipino people by focusing on better housing, healthcare, and connectivity once it is elected to the 19th Congress on May 9.
The advocacies are part of the party-list group’s push for a “Super Visayan Economic Region,” a move meant to more equitably distribute the country’s resources.
Ako Bisdak will also push for the recognition of elected barangay officials as local government unit executives.
They are frontliners in providing administrative support to facilitate the delivery of programs that addresses the three major advocacies of Ako Bisdak.
Recognizing barangay officials as LGU executives would elevate their status and would empower them to better take care of their constituents, who they know best.
Ako Bisdak will push for legislation that will recognize elected barangay officials as local government officials under the Local Government Code.
Housing
Filipinos deserve a roof over their heads, a shelter to build meaningful lives with his or her loved ones.
Unfortunately, the country is short of 5.6 million units of social housing units (as of 2018), according to the Habitat for Humanity.
Ako Bisdak aims to fight for a more effective and decisive intervention in Congress, as the figure could balloon to over 6 million at the end of 2022 if left unchecked.
In the Visayas, Ako Bisdak would aim to develop low cost climate change resistant homes with at least 36sqm floor area (versus the current 20sqm floor area), as well as provide subsidized transportation cost specially for relocated informal settler families.
This is important as the region has been hit by destructive typhoons that has left thousands of families displaced, forced to seek shelter in makeshift rescue and evacuation centers.
Ako Bisdak will push for budgetary allocation for social housing in light of the natural disasters that has devastated the Visayas and Mindanao, partly due to rising urbanization in Cebu, Iloilo, CDO, and Davao.
Healthcare
The country’s healthcare system has a “history of unfair and unequal access” to health services, which greatly affects the poor.
Millions do not have access to basic care, especially in Visayas and Mindanao, where many families fall below the poverty threshold.
Worse, the country suffers from a shortage of human medical personnel such as doctors and nurses.
The Visayas has one of the the lowest number of government hospital beds and government doctors compared to other regions in the country. , which makes this an even bigger priority for Ako Bisdak.
Once elected, Ako Bisdak will push for budgetary allocation to develop low cost provincial diagnostics centers across the country. The party-list group would also work on subsidizing medical costs for senior citizens and low cost insurance for emergency care.
Connectivity
Majority of the population of Western Visayas and Eastern Visayas are rural-based and dependent on the agriculture sector for livelihood, while majority of the population in the Central Visayas are urban-based and dependent on industrial/services sector.
This makes livelihood with connectivity to education and training meaningful and of utmost importance.
Ako Bisdak will push for the “whole of nation approach” in the development of small- to medium-scale livelihood programs in the Philippines.
Ako Bisdak will ensure that all public schools in the Visayas and Mindanao Regions will have access to free WiFi connectivity with enough bandwidth for all students to enhance education in the area, as well as to foster the Visayan regional identity.
Ako Bisdak will also push for a better road system in the country, starting with the push for the reinstatement of the road maintenance share from the road users tax.
Filipinos can also expect that the partylist will push for the PPP development of the Cebu to Bohol Bridge, and other important infrastructure in the country.
Nominees
Ako Bisdak party-list nominees include Admiral Ernesto Enriquez, a Cebu City native who has extensive track record in the area of national defense, fiscal management and domestic and international national security affairs; NBI Director Virgilio Mendez, a lawyer who hails from Bohol, known as the “father of the Modern National Bureau of Investigation” and also a Guardian of the Commission on Audit; and DOTr Usec Rommel Gavieta, an architect who traces his roots o Iloilo, who has extensive experience in regional planning (Clark Special Economic Zone), infrastructure development (MRT3), and project finance.